Aggressive Noncompetition Suit in Massachusetts

Our client was a salesperson who was forced to defend herself against an aggressive noncompetition suit brought by her former employer, from which she resigned after many years due to work rule changes that made it impossible for her to perform her job effectively. During the course of her work, our client signed several iterations of the company’s restrictive covenants. Though the most recent was about six years old and numerous job changes had occurred since it was signed, the employer filed a suit to enforce the form agreement. It accused our client not only of soliciting its customers but of stealing its confidential information. The company sought an emergency injunction in the superior court to block our client from performing work for her new employer.

Result: We persuaded the court to reject the injunction, and the plaintiff quickly dismissed its lawsuit voluntarily. We worked closely with counsel for our client’s new employer to present a clear and concise factual record demonstrating that she had neither taken confidential information nor interfered with her former employer’s business contracts. Advance planning was critical to our defense – we had our client turn over to us for safe keeping cell phones and other electronic devices to ensure the plaintiff could not effectively argue she retained copies of customer data on them.